ETHICS : Moral route critical for move to Dodoma

After dreaming of the relocation of our country’s capital from the lovely coastal city of Dar es Salaam to centrally-located Dodoma, we have suddenly woken up. It has now become a reality. Other countries that moved their capitals and for some, a long time ago include India the seat of power from Calcutta to New Delhi in 1911.

We are joining the ranks of those who moved their capitals in the not too distant past. Brazil shifted its capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia, Nigeria, from Lagos to Abuja, Cote d’Ivoire from Yamoussoukro to Abidjan the list goes on.

But what does it take to relocate a country’s capital city? Why has it taken nearly half a century for Tanzania? Didn’t Mwinyi, Mkapa and Kikwete feel that the move was one of the more innovative tools for national identification?

Didn’t former Heads of State see the connection between the relocation, and nation-building benefits? Were they afraid that moving to Dodoma was a large undertaking and in turn they were not ready to take on the financial, logistical, and political costs?

Why has the moved delayed? Was it profoundly ill-timed, bizarre, extravagant, and misguided? Anyway, whatever the reasons, at last we are on our way. Yes, I know some say the rationale for moving a capital is to bolster economic performance and enhance administrative functions. While I am aware of the fact that relocating to Dodoma is not as easy as it sounds and a number of considerations have to be made, let’s forget about the delay and concentrate on the moral implications of the move.

Let’s discuss ethics. It is important to remember that as people move to Dodoma they carry with them, their human complexities. This automatically calls for honest conversations between the locals in Dodoma and the newcomers.

Others would say the capital should be more secures as its economy would grow rapidly and would require efficient systems.

All this is true and important but ethics as a key component of the relocation agenda may have been forgotten, because it is not being discussed at all and unfortunately there seems to be no strategy in place where the interests and concerns of the host communities are being addressed.

The current discussions seem to be characterised by leadership discourses and traditional rooted assumptions about powers of the State. I think it would be much healthier if the moral state of the city could be acknowledged as relevant and critical.

I think we need ethically analyse what should be expected once the population of Dodoma starts growing. Will the moral status of the city change? And what exactly is the city’s actual state of ethics?

I think it is high time the residents of Dodoma were empowered with a platform that regulates the migration of fellow citizens to Dodoma. This is important as they need to protect their freedoms, welfare and culture.

There is a moral dimension to the relocation of our capital. In our case, Dodoma being at the centre of Tanzania should signify the ‘centre of unity’. Let us therefore make it real so as to enable Dodoma represent the best face of our country both symbolically and in concrete terms.

As JPM and his team build Dodoma let them remember that it should be a national, collective, and unifying space. Let the moral route be shaped by our identities as Tanzanians. The main question is by the time the relocation is over would it be integral to the long awaited new constitution of Tanzania?

We await!